The Best #BlackHistoryMonth Ever! #BlackHistoryMonth2016

Aisha Adams:  5 Reasons This Has Been The Most Unapologetically Black Black History Month Ever

 This has been the blackest and most unapologetic Black History Month ever, and it isn’t even over yet. I am personally here for every melanated moment of it. All this Black excellence and Black power… As much as I love “Lift Every Voice & Sing” and enjoyed writing Black history reports, it could never compare to the ebony joy I have felt since the start of the month as a Black woman. A lot has happened, and I may actually have to do a part two post because we still have 11 days to go. For now, here are five reasons why this has been the most unapologetically black Black History Month ever.

“As the cofounder of Black Lives Matter Chicago, I was issued an invitation to this event, and various news outlets have already listed me as an attendee. But as a radical, Black organizer, living and working in a city that is now widely recognized as a symbol of corruption and police violence, I do not feel that a handshake with the president is the best way for me to honor Black History Month or the Black freedom fighters whose labor laid the groundwork for the historic moment we are living in.” — Aislinn Pulley

RedEye

No Time for Excuses

What's wrong with this picture?

 

This is a photo of the class of 2013 at Morehouse College braving the pouring rain listening to the Father in Chief  standing high and dry under a covered podium telling them there is no time for excuses. 

 

 Excuse me? First of all,  President Obama is not their Father, and will never be their Father, so he has no moral authority to lecture any body's sons or daughters. 

These young men are the norm, not the stereotype,  They have done everything right, and on their way to contributing to society in a positive way.  And what to they get....rained on and preached too.  It's the story of our lives.

Indeed, if we objectively look at Obama’s presidency, African-Americans are in a worse position than they were before he became president. At the end of January 2009, unemployment for African-Americans was 12.7 percent. Four years later, the situation is worse, and unemployment is higher at 13.8 percent.

 

It's no excuse for Morehouse College not to have the foresight, money (?), or  common decency to implement a rain plan. 

 If there is no time for the graduates of Morehouse to make excuses.... there is no time time for the President of Morehouse to make excuses.

If the graduates of Morehouse can't use racism as an excuse..... then President Obama can't use racism by the republicans as  an excuse either.

But here’s the issue.  Telling black Americans to stop using racism as an excuse allows President Obama to create a set of excuses for his own significant, even embarrassing, lack of action to help alleviate the clearly documented, undeniable, legislatively-enforced poison of racial inequality that continues to impact our society.   As he tells the Morehouse men to take more responsibility for their own lives, the mirror of personal responsibility should also be turned on the most powerful black man in the history of the world to use his massive platform to help confront systematic racism that affects us all.  I also wonder if the president is going to follow this speech with one telling gay men that they can’t use homophobia as an excuse to complain, or that women shouldn’t be speaking out about s****l assault.   The double standard is actually borderline frightening:  The president’s skin color creates a human shield protecting the White House from being attacked for saying things that would lead to riots were Obama 100% white instead of just 50%.

I'm just saying.....